Keyword: «border regions»

The article uses statistical methods to explore the prospects for the innovative development of the Republic of Karelia. The authors consider such features of the geographical position of Karelia as frontierity, northernness, and peripherality. With the help of a statistical analysis of the totality of the Russian regions, hypotheses were confirmed about the negative impact of such geographically determined characteristics of the development of the republic as border status, northernness and peripherality on the development of the republic’s innovation system. Taking into account the restraining nature of geographical conditions, the improvement of the quality of public administration and improvement of the institutional environment of innovation activity becomes the main driver of innovative development of Karelia in the future. That is, regional authorities (of Karelia and other subjects of the Russian Federation with similar problems) can direct their efforts towards creating conditions in the region that provide an adequate system of incentives for innovation. This is the main vector of innovative development of the Republic of Karelia.

One of the options for revitalizing cross-border cooperation between Russia and the European Union can be programs of cross-border cooperation in the field of higher education, based on the principles of partnership and depoliticization. As an example, a case study on the development of a marketing strategy for the entry of the Russian company "Trip for students" into the Scandinavian and Baltic markets is given. The case was solved by an international interdisciplinary team of students from Russia, Finland and Norway in the fall of 2021 as part of the 6th session of the BRIDGE international educational project.